[PLUG] perl question

["Eric at Lucii.org" <eric@lucii.org>]

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I have a data structure in perl:

@output

It is sparse (not all indexes have values.)

Those that do look like this example which would be something like $output[5]:
$VAR1 = {
          '128' => {
                     'salutation' => 'Dr.',
                     'area' => '800',
                     'spec_link' => '131',
                     'state' => 'PA',
                     'last_name' => 'Smith',
                     'dr_id' => '1',
                     'city' => 'Swarthmore',
                     'middle' => 'A',
                     'active' => undef,
                     'phone' => '555-1212',
                     'description' => 'some description goes here',
                     'sex' => 'M',
                     'address2' => '',
                     'loc_no' => '1',
                     'zip' => '19067',
                     'title' => 'DMD',
                     'address1' => '123 Any Street.',
                     'first_name' => 'John'
                   }
        };

When I put data in the element I do it like this:

   $var1 = 5 ; $var2 = 128 ;
   $output[$var1]->{$var2}->{'description'} = "some description goes here" ;

To get the data out I walk through the array, skipping indexes where there is no
data.  Once I find an array element with data I want to access the elements.
Currently, the only way I can get to it is to use Dumper to produce the above
print out.

How do I find out what the {'128'} value is so that I can address the elements?

I tried this:

for ( $x = 0; $x < $#output; $x++ ) {
    next if not defined $output[$x] ;
    $hashKey = keys $output[$x]  ;
    print "record: $x has last name of: "
       . $output[$x]->{$hashKey}->{'last_name'}  ;
}

... but perl barfs on the use of keys
Type of arg 1 to keys must be hash (not array element) at ./build_fast_doc.pl
line 229, near "]  ;"

What am I missing here?  I thought the array elements here ARE hashes.

BTW:  This is perl, v5.8.7

Thanks,
Eric
- -- 
#  Eric Lucas
#
#                "Oh, I have slipped the surly bond of earth
#                 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings...
#                                        -- John Gillespie Magee Jr
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